The
focus of this course is on design thinking, a particular problem-solving
approach that emphasizes customer empathy, invention, optionality, and
iteration as its core components. Design thinking is concerned with the creative
side of strategic thinking and complements the more analytical strategic orientation
that emphasizes quantitative methodologies, evaluation frameworks, and the
assessment of a single solution to a strategic problem. The course is oriented
around a model of a staged problem-solving process that asks the questions:
what is, what if, what wows, and what works. Each of these stages incorporates
selected tools developed by design consultancies (with IDEO being the most
prominent) to accelerate the pace, quantity, and quality of the innovative
ideas produced. A final tool, visualization, spans all four stages, and a
series of project management aids (design brief, criteria, napkin pitch, and
learning guide) are incorporated to manage the process culminating in a final
student deliverable applying the process to a hypothetical area of opportunity
for a business of studentsí choosing. This course is a nonproject-based version
of GBUS 8459, the Corporate Innovation and Design Experience.

Academic course objectives:

∑Introducing
students to a form of strategic thinking that is a more of a right brain
problem-solving approach focused on hypothesis generation that complements a
more left brain emphasis on hypothesis testing

∑Familiarize
students with the tools used in the design world that are increasingly of
interest to the more traditional strategy consulting firms, giving them a
competitive advantage in recruiting

∑Expand
how students think about innovation beyond the design and development of new
products to other fundamental sources of value creation

∑Allow
students to integrate both creative and analytic approaches to dealing with
business issues and help them appreciate the power and relevance of each